Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: */*
Few albums have represented such a sharp
turn in style as these. When guitarist Roine Stolt left the band in
1979, he took the original Kaipa style with him and left the band
with something that's closer to a poppish, synth inflicted post punk with
very, very little left of what characterized Kaipa's
first three albums. Only instrumentals ”Regn” and ”Elgrandi”
on ”Händer” show traces of their past, but those traces are so
small they almost don't count.
I've never been a Kaipa fan
but these albums are definitely inferior to anything they originally
became known for. The early albums had a vision whereas these two
sound like a band lost. Especially ”Händer” sounds exactly like
it is, a band struggling to come up with something after one
important member left. I almost feel sorry for them clutching for the
weakest straws; stiff playing, ill-fitting production, and worst of
all: bad songwriting.
”Händer” was released on ABBA:s
label Polar and they were obviously not pleased, so for the next
album ”Nattdjurstid” 1982, Kaipa geared down to Uppsala imprint
Piglet. Maybe the decreased production values were to their
advantage, since ”Nattdjurstid” is a slightly better album. Kaipa
seems to have a better comprehension of their new style, the songs
are tighter and more effective, and the smaller sound suits the new
material better. The band simply sounds more self-assured. There are even moments of true
inspiration, as on ”Zepapo” where Stolt replacement Max Åhman
goes into full Robert Fripp mode. It's still not a good album though,
and they probably realized that going further down this path that
really wasn't theirs would only lead to further humiliation. By the
end of the year, Kaipa disbanded.
Händer full album
Nattdjurstid full album
No comments:
Post a Comment